


2018

by FireSoul



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Gen, I wrote this before watching The Virgin Gary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 06:49:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16383362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireSoul/pseuds/FireSoul
Summary: Zari is reminiscing, something Ray never considered.





	2018

**Author's Note:**

> So today while sitting in class, and not at all paying attention, I realized that Zari is alive in 2018 and I then wrote this in two hours after class. Then I watched The Virgin Gary and debated posting it but I took the time to write it, so here it is!

They stay in 2018 for a few days after the death of Sara’s father. It gives her some time with her family, with Earth 2’s Laurel, and the rest of them are there for her in whatever ways they can be.

Of course, they don’t want to intrude, and so they keep busy. Mick takes a trip out to Gotham City to check out Gideon’s latest location for Lisa, and Nate checks in on his mom. Ray thinks about hitching along on Wally’s trip to Central but instead he decides to stick around Star City in case Sara needs him for anything. Such a choice leaves him with a lot of free time in his lab on the ship, and with everyone mostly off doing their own things he gets a pretty good sense of just how alone he is.

A little too alone.

They’ve been docked for a week now and he’s hardly seen Zari in that time, something he finds a little odd considering she isn’t from this time period. The first day made sense, she had disappeared for a few hours and returned with a Game Stop bag, reminding him that shopping malls are pretty much all shut down in 2042 and while Gideon can fabricate anything for her that she needs, she likes the novelty. But she’s been gone nearly every day now, and even stranger, one thing he’s noticed about Zari since the day she came on board is that if she is allowed to sleep past noon, she will. Now they’re on a shore leave, she has the freedom to stay in bed all day if she pleases, and yet she is always dressed and gone by 11:30 in the morning. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Naturally his logical solution to this hasn’t been to ask his teammate where it is she’s disappearing to every day, but to follow her, having a shrinking suit can have it’s advantages.

He’s careful to stay a good hundred feet or so behind her, even at the size of a fly. So far the only place she’s gone into is a coffee shop. She’s walked three streets since then, and now she’s settled herself onto a bus stop bench.

Why is she waiting for a bus?

He watches from a distance at first, but when a bus stops and she doesn’t get on he decides that now is time to regrow and see what’s going on.

The best coverage he can get is a bush, no phone booths around, but it works well enough. With his suit secure in his pocket he staggers out of the bush, and of course Zari is already watching him. He gives her an awkward, not to mention slightly guilty, smile as he approaches the bench and sits down next to her.

“How long have you known I was following you?”

“Most of the morning,” she shrugs, “How long have you been following me?”

“Most of the morning.” She nods at his words and they sit in silence for another minute or two, the only sounds being those of passing cards and a few shouting children on the playground at the elementary school across the street.

“So…” he finally drawls, wringing his hands together awkwardly. “You going on a trip?”

She smirks with thought, her gaze fixed almost wistfully on the street ahead. “I’m not waiting for a bus.”

He arches his brow at that, confused. “Then what are you doing?”

She shrugs, smile still on her face. “Just reminiscing.”

That doesn’t do anything to explain this to him, so he almost asks again, but the look on her face stops him.

It isn’t threatening; in fact she still isn’t looking at him. She’s looking ahead, at the road, and she looks so happy. Not excited like she first was when they showed her the replicator for the first time, or at least, not entirely. The excitement is there, but it’s joined by something more grounded, more peaceful, something akin to innocent.

Innocent isn’t a word he would normally use to describe Zari. In fact, though he hates to admit it, he would normally use the exact opposite; he would use jaded. Zari comes from a very rough time period and has witnessed first hand the many evils of the world. She’s tough, hardened, she likely hasn’t been innocent since…

Since she was a kid.

Thinking that he might be beginning to understand Ray follows her gaze, not onto the road but past it, across it, onto the children running around on the playground.

“Which..?” He doesn’t finish the question, isn’t sure if he’s right, but she cocks her head as though indicating.

“On the monkey bars,” she tells him, “Oo, just fell off.”

He scans the playground, his eyes landing quickly on the sight of a little girl in a sparkly pink shirt with black leggings picking herself up and brushing woodchips off her hands, her dark hair highlighted by a neon green streak and a dirty mess after her fall.

“That’s you?” He gasps and Zari laughs as her younger self runs back to the starting point for the monkey bars, determined to try again.

“Yup,” she answers, popping her P, sound partly proud and partly embarrassed. “Mom still dressed me, otherwise believe me I would not be wearing so much glitter.”

“And the green hair?” Ray asks, chuckling, especially when Zari swats him in the chest.

“Do not tell the others about it,” she warns him, “But if you must know, it’s a clip on. She has a whole kit at home. Yesterday it was pink, the day before that it was blue, tomorrow it’ll probably be red or something. I can’t remember how many colors were in that kit.”

He’s still laughing, but her secret is safe with him. They’re quiet as little Zari grabs onto the monkey bars for round two, this time swinging her way through them like a pro.

Zari watches on in wonder, while Ray watches her with a similar expression. He should’ve put together that while they found her in 2042, she didn’t grow up there. She grew up here, in 2018. Her past is their future, ergo their present is also her past.

“This is where you’ve been coming all week?”

She shrugs, her face finally falling into a frown.

“I come and watch them, then so the teachers don’t think I’m a creep I get on the second bus that comes by. I’ve been to the park my parents used to take me to, the movie theatre, our old Mosque. I almost visited my mom at work the other day but… I know I’ll start crying if I see her.”

The whistle sounds out from the school then, all the kids dropping their activities and reluctantly heading for line up. Ray watches as they go, and he also sees a bus coming from down the street.

“Well,” Zari says, standing rather abruptly, “Time to go, I was planning Big Belly Burger today. Want to join?”

Ray smiles at her, standing just as the bus pulls up along the curb.

“I’d love to.”


End file.
